3-state trail · National Scenic Trail

Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail

444 mi long · across 3 states

The Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail follows the historic Old Natchez Trace from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee — roughly 444 miles, though only about 65 miles of trail are currently completed in five disjoint sections paralleling the Natchez Trace Parkway. Designated in 1983, it traces a path used by Native Americans, traders, and 'Kaintucks' floating goods down the Mississippi.

States: Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee
Length: 444 mi
Trail type: National Scenic Trail
Network: National (nwn)
Centroid nearest city: Memphis, TN · 101 mi · ~2.9 hr drive
Centroid coords: 34.1280°, -88.7732°
Official site: www.nps.gov/natt
OSM relations: 3 sub-relations on OpenStreetMap

From Wikipedia: The Natchez Trace Trail is a designated National Scenic Trail in the United States, whose route generally follows sections of the 444-mile (715 km) Natchez Trace Parkway through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. The Natchez Trace Trail is not a long, continuous footpath, as is the case with other national scenic trails ; rather, only a limited number of trail segments along the route, currently over 60 miles (97 km) of trail, have been developed for hiking and horseback riding. Moreover, the Natchez Trace Trail, unlike many others that rely heavily on volunteers for trail construction and maintenance, is managed and maintained by the National Park Service. Sections of the trail follow along the Natchez Trace Parkway road shoulder, and cross county and state roads. It was originally intended to be longer and follow most of the Natchez Trace Parkway, but only a portion was built. Excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Natchez Trace Trail, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Termini

Start & end

Southern terminus: Natchez, Mississippi.

Northern terminus: Nashville, Tennessee.

Plan your hike

Practical notes

Maps + permits: long-distance trails like this often require permits for through-hiking, backcountry camping, or specific sections (especially in National Parks). Check with the maintaining organisation listed above and the relevant land manager before booking travel.

Water + supplies: water sources vary seasonally on most U.S. trails. Carry a filter and consult current trail-condition reports — through-hiker journals (PCT-L, AT Reddit, etc.) and the maintaining organisation publish regular updates.

When to go: hiking seasons vary widely with elevation, latitude, and snowpack. Through-hikers traditionally start the AT in March-April (Springer northbound) and the PCT in late April (Campo northbound). High-elevation western trails (CDT, JMT, Wonderland) generally aren't passable until July.

If you've hiked Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail and have current notes (water sources, trail closures, permit changes), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn.

Other trails within 50 miles

1 nearby

Mississippi · 44 mi

Tanglefoot Trail

15 miles from this trail's centroid

Sources

Public data + curation

Trail data on this page is compiled from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), the maintaining organisation's public-facing materials, and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA where excerpts are quoted). Distance, terminus, and descriptive text for nationally-designated trails are hand-curated from federal land-manager websites and trail-association sources. We do not modify the underlying data; this page presents what is already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page.